“Seriously?” Now it was Ryu’s turn to looked shocked.
“Seriously. I don’t care about the media, or the monarchy, or what Captain fucking Landis has to say about it. I love you. I have done for years.”
Ryu felt all the tension leave his body in a rush. He wrapped his arms around Kentario’s neck, hugging him tightly as a way to block out the rest of the world for a while. But he’d somehow forgotten, in all the conversation, that he was still sitting on Kentario’s lap. The man gave a faint moan, and then his hands found Ryu’s hips, shifting him just a fraction closer. The thick length beneath the towel prodded Ryu’s thigh.
Kentario tilted his head, nudging Ryu’s chin out the way to nuzzle his neck again, and it was impossible not to notice the way his hips rolled forward as he inhaled a long, slow breath, his nose pressed up against Ryu’s scent gland. “Goddess, you smell good…”
Ryu didn’t quite know what to make of that. Was it possible that his scent was having the same effect on Kentario as his bodyguard’s scent had on him? Could that mean that he wasn’t defective after all, with his strange mix of alpha and omega tendencies? Then again, he doubted there were many alphas in the world who went around sniffing one another. Perhaps the pheromones released from the glands had always had an effect on other alphas and people just didn’t get close enough to each other to find out.
“Do you want to…?” Kentario stopped before he finished the question, pulling back to look at Ryu with an uncharacteristic hesitation. His hand dropped down to rest on Ryu’s thigh, through the thin sheet. “Sorry, I…” He pulled his hand away, just as Ryu’s brain caught up with what he’d been going to say. They were both all but naked, after all, and…
Daringly, he eased a hand down between them, setting it lightly over the bulge in the towel. “Do you want…?”
“Hell, yes,” Kentario groaned. “But I don’t want to rush you into anything.”
“I’ve wanted to do this for ages.”
Instead of pulling him closer, Kentario shifted him off his lap and further onto the bed. But rather than pulling away, he moved closer, tossing the towel off the bed as he slid in under the sheets. Then he leaned over, switching off the bedside lamp. “We need to be quiet,” he said, lowering his voice. “Oris doesn’t need to know about this yet.”
Ryu nodded, shuffling backwards to allow Kentario more room on the bed. Then he gasped as he felt naked skin against his thigh. Kentario was breathing quickly, the muscles of his abdomen standing out in sharp definition as he tensed. His hair was wet, hanging almost to his shoulders, making him look roguish and untamed.
“You’re amazing,” Kentario muttered. “Goddess, I want you so much…”
Ryu silenced him with a kiss, then willingly tumbled back onto the bed as Kentario pressed him back. A tentative hand stole down his side, teasing his ribs, lingering at the dip of his waist, then Ryu arched his back as warm, calloused fingers closed around his erection. He bucked his hips upwards, impatient and needy. He let his head fall back, exposing his neck, and felt Kentario’s lips teasing at his scent gland.
“I want you to bite me,” he said, his voice a husky invitation.
At the blatant request, Kentario’s jaw went slack. He stared at Ryu’s neck, disbelief and longing warring on his face. It was a bold suggestion, a reckless one that would change both their futures irrevocably. Before finding one’s soulmate, the glands were pale in colour, the skin slightly raised. Biting one’s soulmate’s scent gland was considered a sacred part of making love for the first time, and with the breaking of blood vessels as a consequence of the bite, the gland would turn dark, a permanent stain that signalled to any competing suitors that an alpha or omega was taken. If they took that step, there would be no hiding their relationship from the palace, no denying that something illicit had gone on behind closed doors. For traditionalists, the mark was considered even more binding than any official marriage ceremony.
“Are you sure?” Kentario asked. “If we do this, there’s no going back. I’m not exactly sure what the penalty is for defiling a prince, but it can’t be good.”
“Then they should have damn well let me meet my soulmate long before now,” Ryu said.
Kentario mouthed his neck again. “If this is the result, then I’m kind of glad they didn’t.” But he didn’t bite down, not yet. Instead, he trailed a lineof kisses down over Ryu’s collar bone, across his nipple, then further down his chest. He didn’t stop until he reached Ryu’s hip. Then he looked up, his body a weighty shadow in the dark.
“I’ve never done this before,” Kentario admitted. “So tell me if I do anything you don’t like.”
It was all Ryu could do to squeak out a faint acknowledgement, then he felt a warm wetness engulf the tip of his erection. “Oh, Goddess…” He rolled his hips upwards, legs scrambling for purchase on the sheets. Kentario cupped one hip in a large hand, steadying him as he took more into his mouth. Ryu felt suction, then a faint vibration as Kentario moaned. Goddess, how many nights had he imagined this very thing? Gentle fingers stole around to his entrance, then Kentario paused once again. “Um… Is this… Is it okay? Or do you want me to…?”
“I want you inside me,” Ryu admitted, feeling himself blush at the idea of it. Perhaps he should have put up more of a protest, tried to behave more like an alpha. But the idea of lying beneath Kentario’s weight, of having his body thrust against him, was a sinful temptation. He felt himself harden further, his groin tingling in expectation.
But then another thought intruded, unwelcome, but unfortunately necessary. “Lube,” he blurted out, pulling away a fraction as one thick finger teased his opening. “We need lube.”
Kentario swore, sitting up abruptly. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s what Oris meant when he said we could ask if we needed anything.”
“Maybe he keeps some in the bathroom?” Ryu suggested, glancing hopefully at the open ensuite door. Maybe that was just desperation talking. “Or maybe there’s something else in there we can use?”
“Yeah… hang on…” Kentario slid off the bed, disappearing into the bathroom. The light came on, and Ryu heard him rummaging around in the cupboard.
“You jammy bastard,” Kentario muttered, a moment later. The light flicked off, and he strode back out the doorway, something in his hand that showed up as a pale flicker in the dim light. “He actually keeps lube in the spare bathroom.”
“We’re going to have to give him a pay rise, or something,” Ryu said, stomping down firmly on the knowledge that he could only do so if he still had a kingdom come morning. But there were far more pressing issues to deal with right now.
Kentario slid back into bed, and Ryu waited while he fiddled with the cap on the tube. A moment later, something cool and wet touched his entrance, and he flinched.
“Sorry,” Kentario apologised, but Ryu was having none of it.
“It’s fine. Keep going. It’s just cold…”
